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MarketPulse

09:43AM

U.S. stocks open lower with tech leading drop
(
SPXDJIACOMP
)
by Kate Gibson

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks opened lower Monday after the World Bank cut its view of China growth and as investors fretted about Europe's debt crisis ahead of a gathering of euro-zone finance ministers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
(djia)
fell 47.77 points, or 0.4%, to 13,562.38. The S&P 500 index
(spx)
declined 6.41 points, or 0.4%, to 1,454.52. The Nasdaq Composite
(comp)
lost 20.31 points, or 0.7%, to 3,115.88.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- AMR Corp.
(aamrq)
, the holding company for American Airlines, said Monday its consolidated revenue passenger miles fell 2.8% in September. Domestic revenue passenger miles dropped 7.1%, while international revenue passenger miles rose 3.2%. The month's consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile increased by about 4%. AMR Corp. is currently in bankruptcy proceedings.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Navistar International Corp.
(nav)
said Monday it reached an agreement with Icahn Partners and MHR Fund Management to name Vincent Intrieri and Mark Rachesky to its board of directors. The company also agreed to add a third director who will be designated and mutually agreed upon by Icahn Partners and MHR. Intrieri and Rachesky will replace Eugenio Clariond and Steven Klinger, who have agreed to retire. "Icahn and MHR have agreed that they will not run a proxy contest at the 2013 annual meeting and will support the board's nominees, as well as certain other provisions," according to a statement issued by Navistar.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- NBT Bancorp Inc.
(nbtb)
said Monday it'll pay about 2.18 shares of its stock for each share of Alliance Financial Corp.
(alnc)
in a merger valued at $233 million. The price values Syracuse, N.Y.-based Alliance at $48 a share based on NBT's average closing stock price of $22.04 for the five-day trading period ending on Friday. Shares of Alliance closed at $39.41 on Friday.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The South African rand tumbled to its lowest level in more than three years on Monday, extending a six-day slide as union activity in the country has expanded from the mining sector to truckers, worrying investors as strikes become a bigger threat to the country's growth and deficits, analysts said. The dollar
(usdzar)
rose to buy almost 9 rand -- touching its highest level since early 2009 -- before edging back to 8.9315 rand. The greenback has shot up 8.7% this month, according to FactSet. "Until such time as industrial unrest abates and the underlying damage becomes a little clearer, then the [rand] will be susceptible to inevitable downward pressure," said Neil Mellor, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- American Express Co.
(axp)
and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
(wmt)
on Monday unveiled plans to roll out a prepaid card program called Bluebird as an alternative to debit and checking accounts. "The financial services landscape is changing. Technological advances, regulatory changes, and evolving consumer needs are redefining payments ranging from prepaid, to checking and debit. Bluebird is our solution to help consumers who currently may be poorly served by traditional banking products," the companies said in a joint press release.

08:03AM

California gasoline prices rise to $4.67 a gallonby Steve Gelsi

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Average retail gasoline prices in California rose a penny to just under $4.67 a gallon on Monday, according to the Daily Fuel Gauge Report from the AAA. It's the third consecutive day of record gasoline prices on tight supply. In a move to ease prices, Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday ordered regulators to allow winter-blend gasoline to be sold in the state earlier than usual. It's typically not sold until after Oct. 31. Brown said the early transition could increase California's fuel supply by 8% to 10%. In a statement, Brown said an Exxon Mobil Corp.
(xom)
refinery came back online on Friday and a Tesoro Corp.
(tso)
refinery is due to resume production early next week. "My hunch is that the spot and wholesale markets will cool," said Tom Kloza of the Oil Price Information Service.

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